Ahram Weekly

On the right track

Egypt finished first in the Arab Athletics Championship and won nearly a dozen medals in the African Junior Track and Field Championship, Abeer Anwar reports

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Al-Ahram Weekly

In the 19th Arab championship, Egypt won 15 medals: six gold, four silver and five bronze to top the medal rankings in the three-day event held in Bahrain last week.

Morocco came second with 13 medals – six gold, four silver and three bronze while Bahrain, the host, came in third with a total of 17 medals, including six gold, three silver and eight bronze.

Egypt’s gold medals came from stars Ehab Abdel-Rahman who is No 1 in the junior javelin world rankings. Abdel-Rahman set a new Arab record of 80.72m. Mustafa Al-Gamal who is ranked third in the world in the hammer throw, won gold with 74.81m. Nourhan Sami added the third gold in the javelin throw with 49.58m. More gold went to Mustafa Amr in the shot put with a heave of 19.22m, Bassant Mosaad in the high jump with 1.75m and Hoda Atef in the septathlon with 5,404 points.

“I am very happy with my new achievement which helps me in improving to reach the best standard before I represent Egypt in the world championship, as I hope I will continue my previous achievement and keep my rank as the world champion in the javelin throw,” Abdel-Rahman said, adding that such tournaments give him a “good competing atmosphere” as he prepares to represent Egypt in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Walid Atta, Egyptian Athletics Federation president, called the achievements great. “I am very proud of them as they proved that we are on the right track.” Atta was able to win membership in the African Athletics Federation after Egypt’s long absence on the African scene.

The four silver medals came by way of Reda Adel in the javelin with 47.44m, Sarah Haseib in the discus with 47.37m, Mohamed Hamza in shot put with 18.38m and Anas Beshr in 400m.

The five bronze medals went to Israa Eweis in the long jump, Alaa Al-Ashri in the hammer throw, Wedian Mokhtar in the septathlon, Israa Mustafa in the hammer throw and Dina Abdel-Moneim in the javelin.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s under-18 track and field team notched up 11 medals in the African Juniors Championship held in Mauritius, finishing with one gold, eight silver and two bronze. Fatma Ashraf was the only gold winner in the hammer throw with 55m. The silver medals were scooped up by Salma Shams in the javelin, Mariam Mohamed in the hammer, Nourhan Al-Daqaq in shot put, Marina Nader in javelin throw, Shehab Mohamed in shot put, Abdel-Rahman Abdullah in 10km walking, Nourhan Eissa in 5km walking and Rima Ahmed in the discus throw.

The two bronze medals were garnered by Ammar Al-Aboudi in the septathlon and Shehab Mohamed in the discus.